Meet of Champions: Cherry Hill East wins 400 free relay

Cherry Hill East has been one of the most successful swim programs of the decade.

The Cougars have dominated the South Jersey, Public A section, and have now won four state titles in the last six years, but they hadn’t won a relay at the Meet of Champions since 2011.

After finishing second in the 400 free relay in preliminaries on Saturday, Cherry Hill East knew the end to that drought was in sight.

“We all felt good yesterday after prelims and we all knew we had a little more left," Bobby Irwin said. "Our splits were right there but we knew we could go faster. We knew it was going to be really competitive.”

Irwin, Mike Treglia, Alex Volin and Jackson Brookover came through on that promise, swimming a 3:07.37 to beat defending champion Pingry by .45 seconds and set the school record in the process.

“It was awesome coming in here freshman year and watching the older guys swim this," Treglia said. "Now it’s us swimming this and winning it, and doing it in front of the younger kids is amazing to show them the potential they have for the future years they have at East.”

The time was more than four seconds faster than what the quartet put together on Saturday, when they trailed Pingry by more than a second. While the race was close, Brookover still had to give it his all to give Cherry Hill East the narrow win.

“We’re all seniors here and we knew this was the last time we’d all be swimming together, and last time representing Cherry Hill East," Brookover said. "We just went for it. Last race you got to go fast. Last one, fast one. We gave it everything we’ve got and it went well.”

Now those four seniors get to ride off into the sunset with the school record, the first relay record in nearly a decade and three Public A titles.

“You couldn’t ask for a better way to end the season," Volin said. "This was a phenomenal season already, and this was just really the exclamation point.”